Through complicated relations between lovers, the play

shows us it is changeable in romance. Though people feel

like to love their lovers forever, it seems to be impossible.

There are lots of conflicts between lovers, and romance will

be gone because of discord at any time. When Lysander

and Demetrius fell in love with Helena at the same time, they

treated Hermia coldly. This is the very situation in contrast

to that both Lysander and Demetrius fell in love with Helena.

It makes us consider the romance transient. For instance,

one man may be in love with his girl friend now, vowing that

his love will always for her. Some time latter, however, they

may break up only because of a dispute. In spite of this

condition, lovers in romance, seem to be drop the magic

juice of love-in-idleness, madly love each other and believe

that love is everything, not knowing their obduracy. Until

their enthusiasm in love disappear, everything is like an

unexplainable dream gone with time. Lovers are not able to

be happy in romance until the lovers get rid of the tangle of

affection and understand who they love and whom they are

loved. Besides, in the drama performer by artificers in this

play, that the lovers killed themselves in order to be together

with each other was thought to be a perfect ending. This

represents the image of love and marriage in general,

expecting to sacrifice everything for love. But in fact, like

the crisis of Oberon and Titania's marriage, the affection

between a man and a woman is not close as what people

think to be, instead, there are different opinions and

conflicts that are needed to be coordinated by both of them.

Without doing so, the relation of two lovers is difficult to

maintain. In this play, marriage and romance is its theme,

through each pair of lovers the play shows us the theme

ingeniously and wittily. Though I can't understand a lot of

the dialogue in this play, however, it is still an interesting

play. Roy [top]

 

The Senior Play of year 1999 is based on the famous Shakespeare's

drama: A Midsummer Night's Dream. After watching the play, I was really

amazed and appreciated that all the members' great efforts in the play

and that they could present this play in such a different and unique way.

All of them really did an excellent job and their acting is worthy of a big

applause. First of all I would like to talk about the setting, time and place.

The setting is totally different from the original script and this change

makes the play an unique one. The actors actually act in the time of the

Tang (唐) dynasty and the whole play is put to happen in Chan-an(長安)

and Tun-huang(敦煌). I believe that when the audience was watching the

play, they would feel it very interesting to see those actors wearing

Chinese-style costumes, while speaking in sixteen-century English. There

is a sense of the mixture of the eastern and western culture in the play by

the conversion of the time and place. This idea is really original! By

adding this Chinese element in the play, the audience, the Chinese

audience especially, can catch the humor and recognize the reason that

actors presented in this or that way. For example, when those beautiful

fairies were dancing, they did not dance a ballet but the "Tsai-tai

Wu”(彩帶舞), which is a typical kind of Chinese dance that originated

from ancient China. While the carpenter, weaver, or tinker were amusing

themselves, they were not playing cards but dice, which is a traditional

form of Chinese gambling. Besides, the philosophy of the Buddhism is

shown through the fairies’ dancing. Notice that while fairies were

dancing, their fingers are in the form of lotus, which is one of the symbols

of Buddhism. Besides, fairies even used incense in the dance to create

an atmosphere of Buddhism. The representation of the play gives me a

feeling of “ When the Eastern world meets the Western world in

Taiwan.” During the play, there was wonderful interaction between the

actors and the audience. Maybe because the play is a comedy, the

atmosphere was jovial and the laughter was contagious. While Snug,

Bottom, Flute, Snout and Starveling were acting; the audience was really

amused by their excellent acting. The character, Bottom, which was

performed by Andrew Ho, was the center of the laughter, especially when

he became an ass. Andrew performed the ass so well with a vivid

donkey's voice. He really has a talent in acting. As for the pronunciation,

it surely is a difficult task to remember all these lines in sixteen-century

English. I have talked to some of the actors and they all considered that it

is really hard to remember all those lines. But when I was watching the

play, they all pronounced as closely as possible to sixteen-century

English. All the actors really put great effort in the play! Not only the

actors on the stage but also the backstage staff including members who

are in charge of sound effect, lightings, costumes and make-up…act all

work as a team and that is most important thing that makes this play a

wonderful play. Clare Su [top]

 

Unlike the original play, the senior play begins with the fairies' fooling

around and their dancing. I like the fairies' dresses from 敦煌.

They're quite beautiful and well-designed, but I think they are a little bit

formal to the fairies in the forest, and are more like dresses for

maiden in court. They seem to fit more in the court part where they

preparing for the marriage and making table with dancing. Anyway the

fairies' dancing really makes the play more active. Another part of the

play which I find is quite good is that the actors and actresses control

the stage well. For example, in the part that Lysander and Demetrius

quarrelling for Hermia, Hermia's moving right and left gives the

audience a good visual effet. Another thing that surprises me is the

make-up which really make those girls who play the charactors of

country men look like real men. And in the play within a play, we can

see the actors behind the on-stage scene clearly. They even show the

actors' movement behind the scene on the stage, and in fact, they are

acting to be not acting and that is really interesting. Later on I am

going to talk about some actor and actress's performances which

impress me most. The most attractive actor of this play must be

Bottom. He has funny face expression and creative hand gestures.

Every time when he enters, the audiences cannot stop laughing and

putting eyes on him. In some way I think he takes the spotlight from

the main characters. I also like to mention the queen of the fairies,

Titania. Her dresses quite fit her character while the fairy king's

seems to be too heavy. Her voice and gesture are really queen-like,

and she acts sucessfully to be both tender and powerful. For me, she

is exactly what the real queen looks like. ellen chen [top]

 

A midsummer night's dream is a very famous comedy written by William

Shakespeare in sixteen century. The original setting of this play was in Athens.

But the 1999 senior play of the English Department of FU- Jen University set

Shakespeare's drama in Chang-an in Tang, China around the 8th century. The

whole senior play is interpreted in Buddhist terms, and it gives the audience

fresh theatrical experiences about A midsummer night’s dream. As we can see

in the introduce of this play, the main theme of this play is "In dreams, life's

bitterness and joy become reality, yet awakened, all happenings are but seen As

passing reminiscences of a cosmic comedy.” And the whole play is related to

this main theme. We can easily see that the casts and the backstage had worked

very hard on this play. Student director Haley Chang even told us that the only

word to describe the process of preparing this play is “painful." It is because all

the details in the play must be noticed, including the pronunciation of the actors

and actresses, the lighting, sound effect, costume…so on. They also need to

keep on rehearsing for the play. I think it the process must be very tiring. There

are some important elements to make the performance more vivid. Actors and

actresses play a very important role in making the whole play more attractive.

Like Bottom, he successfully bring laughter to the audience. He really did a good

job in this play because he brought joy to the audience and make this play more

like a comedy. The two lovely pucks also made the play more lively. The scene

always become more bustling with noise and excitement when the pucks show

up. We might feel lack of something if there are no the pucks in this play. The

fairies dance and act beautifully. The appearance of the fairies in the play

always make the tableau looks more beautiful and elegant. In fact each character

in the play is very important. The play won't be perfect even if there is only an

actor or an actress missing. Although the play was played by the students, the

level of this play was close to the professional ones. It took all the seniors’ effort

to complete the play. We can also see that this play is quite successful from the

number of showing of the play were always full of capacity. Anyway I think the

play is wonderful Chenwanyu [top]

 

This is my first time to see the senior play of English Department, but I went to

Freshman Play Contest once when I was only a freshman in Fu Jen. In fact, I

didn't have a lot of expectation about this play. But after going to see it in person

last Saturday, I was surprised that senior play is really good. It was totally different

from what I saw in the Freshman Play Contest. As what we saw in the play, the

seniors certainly improved their ability in every part, including their skill of acting,

organization of the play, & of course, their ability in English! All of the actors,

actresses, and the group of backstage did a great job. The dancing was so nice

and cute, the clothing showed the personality of every character to the audience

well, and the background music was impressive, too. According to what we saw in

the play, we knew that they must take a lot of time and efforts to make this play

come true. There were some actors and actresses that impressed me a lot in this

play: Rebecca Lao (Titania): She was charming as a queen, her eyes & smooth

voice caught the audience's attention well. Grace Hsu (Fairy): According to my

point of view, she was the most beautiful one of the fairies. Her smile was so

sweet that I would think she was really as happy as a fairy. And I found that she

looked wonderful in Chinese classical dress. If she lived in the past time, she

might be the queen whom king loves & spoiled most. Lawrance Hsu (Egeus):

Although he didn't show up for long time, I thought he has the gift to be a actor.

His face presented his emotion well. Joanna Shih (Hermia): Joanna's voice was

quite sweet, she was just like the character "Hermia" in my mind. If I have chance

to make friend with her, I will be very glad about it! I always want to have a sister

like Joanna……^_^* Andrew Ho (Bottom): I believed that all of the audience were

impressed about his performance very much. No wonder, he is an experienced

actor. And that is why he could show himself off on the stage without fear! I guess

that he must be an interesting person ! In a word, I felt enriched after seeing this

play……..^_^* Caroline [top]